New Nutraceutical Shows Bone Health Benefits

Sarah McGowan-Freije, NatureCity author & contributor

A nutraceutical that combines a number of bone health enhancing ingredients has been shown to improve bone health for postmenopausal women with metabolic syndrome. The study was conducted by researchers with MetaProteomics, LLC.

The results of the study were published in the May 2011 edition of Nutrition Research.

Metabolic syndrome is a collection of syndromes that include abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, high triglyceride levels and high glucose. Postmenopausal women with metabolic syndrome are at a higher risk for osteoporosis.

This study tested the effect on bone health of a nutraceutical supplement comprised of vitamin D1 and K1, rho iso-alpha acids and berberine sulfate trihydrate. Rho iso-alpha acids have been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties and berberine sulfate trihydrate has been shown to shown to have a positive effect on bone metabolism.

51 postmenopausal women with metabolic syndrome were recruited for the 14 week study.

All of the participants were instructed to eat a Mediterranean-style diet and to engage in daily aerobic exercise. Half of the participants were also randomly selected to receive the nutraceutical supplement twice daily. The other half received a placebo.

At the end of the 14 weeks, the participants receiving the supplement had a 25% decrease in a marker for bone turnover, compared to levels at the beginning of the study. The participants who received the placebo saw a 21% increase in the bone turnover marker.

High bone turnover results in increased bone resorption which can lead to a thinning of the bone structure, and increased risk for fracture.

Previous studies have also shown that soy and vitamin K may be particularly helpful for bone health, especially among post-menopausal women.